The Worst President Ever Just Got Worse

We already knew George W. Bush drove the country into an economic Grand Canyon, but we didn’t know his record was this bad:

New data on Friday showed the 2007-2009 U.S. recession was much more severe than prior measures had found, with economic output declining a cumulative of 5.1 percent instead of 4.1 percent. . . .

At the depth of the recession in the fourth quarter of 2008, output plummeted at an annual rate of 8.9 percent — the steepest quarterly decline since 1958, and 2.1 percentage points more than previously reported.

The recession was already the deepest since the Great Depression and, while it still pales in comparison, the data help explain why it is taking so long to shake off its legacy. [Emphasis added]

Think about it: When Barack Obama took office, the economy was contracting to the tune of 9% a year. In case you were wondering, that’s where the revenue went. Down the Bush rat hole.

Stark as such numbers are, don’t bother conveying them to teabaggers who want to kill Medicare to pay for deficits caused by Republican tax cuts, wars and recessions. (I’ve tried.) Teabaggers don’t do math — or science — or reality.